Experiencing God's Love.

The past two weekends I've had the privilege to go to a couple of youth conferences to promote Mountain T.O.P. The first one, Resurrection, is the youth event for the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. I didn't realize that the Holston Conference covered such a huge area. I should've realized when I heard that they had 3 sessions over the course of 2 weekends with about 6,000 youth in each session. Yeah... Crazy! This conference covers from parts of Virginia all the way down to northern parts of Georgia. The second one I went to, Warmth in Winter, is the youth event for the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church. The TN Conference covers Middle Tennessee and isn't as big as the Holston Conference. Warmth in Winter had about 2,000 youth. Thinking back to the youth events I went to in Mississippi, this is still HUGE.

When I first agreed to go to Resurrection I saw it as a weekend trip to Gatlinburg, so I thought it'd be fun. The free time that we spent hanging out in Gatlinburg turned out to be one of the least exciting parts of the trip. Resurrection turned out to be an opportunity for me to take a step back and look at all the reasons that I work at Mountain T.O.P. So many times, I get caught up in the to do lists, projects, and stress of the job and forget that two of our foundational objectives are to develop leadership skills and to actively encourage Christian growth in our participants and staff. I was reminded that the stress of the job doesn't even come close to comparing to the impact that this ministry has on the lives of the people that come in and out of our gates, especially the youth during the summer.

Reggie Dabbs, the main speaker at Resurrection, has a way of connecting with the youth that was obviously a gift from God. He told stories about his childhood and told other stories he made up to get the point across that God loves each and every one of us and nothing we do is going to change that. He also entertained everybody with his Saxophone skills. He shared how he experienced God's love through his foster parents while growing up in Knoxville. He had a way of connecting with his audience that let him be completely upfront and sometimes blunt with them. During the second worship session of the weekend, he asked for all of the adult females to stand in the aisles and look back at their youth. Then, he asked any of the youth that had thought of suicide to stand up (at this point I thought he was crazy because why would a youth that was thinking about that stand up and announce it to the whole place). But they stood up. He then told the women in the aisles to go to the youth and embrace them to let them feel the love of God. The most amazing thing that happened in this worship was watching the whole youth groups gather around the youth that were struggling and surround them with God's love. Many times working at MTOP we experience God's love in many different ways, but when I was watching this outpouring of God's love, it felt different from any other time I have ever felt it before. I felt like I was just looking in at it. I didn't know any of these youth and I had no real connection to anyone in the room. It's absolutely amazing how the Holy Spirit comes into a room of over 6,000 people and touches everyone in such a strong way. Looking around I don't think I saw one person in the room that didn't have a look of loving concern on their face. Almost everyone I saw had tears streaming down their face. Many of the people in the room that I could see were praying for the youth as well. This is the kind of expression of God's love that I am amazed by every time. People who have no contact to the people that are in need of love, but still pour that love on them by praying for them.

I would be lying if I told you that when he first asked those youth to stand up I didn't feel uncomfortable and kind of wanted to leave the room because I felt like it was something that was very personal for them and what could I offer just standing in the back never having met these youth before. But I decided not to and instead started praying along with the others in the room and in the end I experienced the love of God in a new and, at first, uncomfortable way that I never have before and that I never will forget. Experiencing the Holy Spirit in that room reminded me why I have been called to ministry here at MTOP. It's not just to organize projects and make sure people have what they need to complete it, but it's about loving everyone that I come in contact with and even the ones I don't. It reminded me that I am called to share God's love in every way I can think of and even ways that I have never thought of before. As Mrs. Peggy, a woman in my Disciple class, says often, "We have to be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit." Where ever and whenever it happens, I have to be ready to go whichever I'm being led and I have to be ready to share God's love in new ways that I might be uncomfortable with.

This wasn't exactly what I had planned on talking about when I started, but I don't see a problem with going off on tangents, so... back to the original topic.

It was great being able to talk to people about MTOP and what we do. There were many people at Resurrection that had never heard of MTOP before. It was nice to be able to share this ministry that has been so influential in my life with people who had never heard of it.

Warmth in Winter was a little different than Resurrection. People in the TN Conference know MTOP and many of them have been campers. It was nice to see some friends and hear stories of past MTOP experiences. The best part was being able to fly around a big clown fish that said "Quit clowing around come to MTOP" on one side and "We fish for people, come to MTOP" on the other (yes I spelled clowning wrong, but that's because it was spelled wrong on the fish and we didn't realize it for a while). Here is a link to a video Sam took of the fish flying around and some of the people who liked the fish (notice the guy petting it). Big flying fish!

The past two weekends have reminded me that the youth that come into camp aren't just loud and very energetic, but it has reminded me that so many of them are on fire for God and love to share the love that He as freely given to them. That is why it's so exciting that we get to explore God's love in more depth this year with our theme from 1John 3. I saw real love practiced in many ways over the past couple of weekends and I can't even begin to imagine the outpouring of God's love that will come as a result of the youth at those two conferences. But I guess that's not for me to know. God sees every bit of it, and He knows that it is from His Word being shared with those youth from their leaders and the many different opportunities the leaders give their youth to experience and share that love. It also reminded me of what can happen when we don't stand in the way of the Holy Spirit and let It move through us in ways that we can't even begin to think of... until it happens. Praise God.